Redemption is No more
by dreamstar potter
Summary: The console was strange yes but was it supposed to hurt anybody? No. Did Ian and Anthony expect anything more than just foolish about this console? No. Did Game Bang expect that they would end up hurting someone because of this console? No. Yet, why did it happen? Jovenshire didn't do anything wrong- yet why, did this time he had to lose their game?


Redemption is nothing

A Gamebang fanfiction

-line-

Today was different. Every time the Smosh Games crew would come together in a playgroup called "Game Bang" there would be a price to losing. There always was a price. Jovenshire was the one to always pay that price.

He knew it. He always knew that he lost. He knew he wasn't the best at what he did. Today, however was different. The original founders of Smosh, the always charming Ian and Anthony have made a deal with an obscure gaming company, with an assumed sucky console. Of course, getting the console and "eventually" using it in videos was to help the company, and for getting the share in profits. This console was strange, it had no controllers, just two soft circular mats with wires. Game Bang was today and Jovenshire did not feel ready or confident at all. He knew that his chin had to be up and his sport had to be at his highest for the biggest humiliation yet. Very rarely did someone else other than Joven lose a video game. He sighed, straightened his glasses and hair, and went into the gaming room where the others were waiting. Joven wasn't listening to Ian and Anthony's expository about what was being played, he did his rehearsed shout of "Game Bang" and was well sunk into his thoughts until something came up about the humiliation:

"Loser plays a fighting game with this weird console! The x-gamr-g-302, we'll be trying this out for the first time!"

This was new, playing some fighting game with a new an obscure video game console? It must suck, but other punishments were worse. Jovenshire added the last part lightly, he idly remembered the punishment in which he had to drink some poisonous concoction for losing at Portal.

The game today was some fighting thing on PC, something Jovenshire never played. Oh, well, he already accepted defeat, he wasn't very good. Plus, it was just a game, right?

Right?

Well, for someone so competitive he always seems to lose, because he was in dead last today. Maybe- maybe he was too competitive, his empty confidence always making him lose. Joven was bored, his fate was already accepted, the only humiliation he'll get out of this is being a fool on some circular mat. He's done worse, honestly. This, this was nothing. Jovenshire took off his shoes, wearing his mask of amusement, although he was bored and stepped on the mat. It took about a second, the moment the home screen for the game flashed on the TV screen- everything went black.

"Joven?"

"Jovenshire are you okay?"

"_Joven!" _Why are they yelling? Did he just pass out? Joven was back down on a wet, rough, cold surface. Everything was black, so dark that his eyes could not become accustomed to it. He was blind, so blind. He got to his feet, legs shaking, hands whipping out in front of himself trying to feel for some lightswitch.

"Guys?" He called out nervously, "Guys, what's going on? This isn't funny!"

"_Joven! Are you okay?" _It was Mari, her voice was coming through some sort of speaker, it sounded in his ear. It sounded everywhere, there was no source to her voice.

"I'm fine," Joven said, "Where are you? What happened?"

"You disappeared on the mat! The only thing here is the home screen for the game," Something happened in this pitch blackness, bright red flashed in a second, blinding Jovenshire for a split second.

"I think- I think I'm in the game," Joven did not sound excited, being in a fighting game was terrible and he sucked at them.

"Too cool!" He heard Ian's voice, "We'll choose your competitor, and we'll see you fight!"

"Wait," Joven said, "We don't know what could happen to me here, so start with something easy okay?"

"Nah, too boring," Ian was doing something, there were slight clicks, trying to choose some competitor, "Plus, you can't die in the game! This is to promote the console not demote it,"

"Um okay," Joven had to agree, otherwise the viewers wouldn't like it even if he had his doubts. , "I'll do it, send them in!"

The redness dissolved around him into some generic steampunk scenery. There were a lot of creepy shadows everywhere, stepping from the shadow was a muscular man about five feet taller than him, he had a katana and a few chains draped around his neck and arms. Joven had no weapons, only his fists.

"Guys? This game doesn't give me weapons!" The man approached him and took the chains from his arms. Jovenshire backed away from the man, unease and fear creeping into his veins. No one was answering him, the man swung the chains and all of a sudden a sharp pain that was way too real struck his back. It was worse than humiliation, it was punishment! He felt himself cough, and gasp for air, attempting to resist the pain of the chains upon his back. Another blow, harder than the last one made Joven yelp with pain, tears pricking at his eyes; He sent out a blind kick and was satisfied to hear the man deterred by it. Joven couldn't stand straight, he wobbled like a hunchback into the shadows, trying to remain hidden, yet it was fruitless the man only seized him by his collar and ended up kicking him in the stomach- hard. He coughed something coppery filling his mouth. This was way too real, way too real.

"Hello? This hurts this is too real!" Joven got up again, thankful that he was still alive, and clutched his stomach, feeling ready to retch. The man did not hesitate to try to hit him with the heavy chains. Joven tried to move out of the way, it ended up catching his arm making it bruise. The man lunged, he was too fast and easily had Joven in a headlock an arm was behind his back being bent towards its limit.

"Alright! Alright! You win!" Joven was shouting as it continued being bent, tears were building in his eyes, he was struggling furiously attempting to free himself from his competitor. There was a snap- and fire rushed through his arm, eliciting a bloodcurdling scream from Joven. Tears of pain were rolling down his cheeks, his arm was hurting as if a demon decided to cut it with a cursed knife. He couldn't move it- dangit he was going to lose. Joven was struggling some more but the grip from the other man tightened, and he heard a terrifying, gruff voice whisper-

"I like to see my competitors suffer," with that the man broke his other arm with ease, another scream, Joven's throat was raw, his mouth filled with blood, his insides shrieking with pain.

He was pushed to the floor where he was kicked in the stomach again and again, more and more fluid tasting of metal and salt filling his mouth. Joven was choking by the end of kicking, bent over, retching dark red trying to gasp for air.

"_GUYS! T-t-this really- h-h-hurts," _He groaned, horrified to see himself throwing up blood. The man lifted him up again and raised the katana and Joven could not help but watch as he purposely sliced it through his left lung and his right lung. He was dropped to the floor, unable to move each breath for air wet and weak. His throat was filled with blood, and he coughed and coughed and coughed, trying to save himself but ended up getting woozier and woozier. The ground was slick with warm wetness and he dragged himself out of the dark shadow into the one light. He looked down at the metal ground and saw bright crimson dripping onto the metal. This was bad, this was real, he was dying, he's drowning. Every part of his body throbbed with pain, he wished for the game to be over, for this punishment to end.

"An'one? Ma-ri? Anthon-y? I- I need t-to g-get out-," His cheek was on the metal floor, smearing it in quickly cooling blood. His voice sounded so wet and rattling, even his breath sounded as if his mouth was full of water. They weren't coming, they weren't even answering! Blackness seeped at the corners of his eyes, how nice…the pain was going away… can't worry about Game Bang now… this was very nice… he _was _tired…. He needed sleep anyway…. Yeah… _I'm going to sleep…. _

-line-

"Joven?" Sohinki called into the mic, thinking it was all just some sick joke. Joven's body was bruised and battered, his arms bent in awkward direction, clearly broken. His mouth when he faced them, but not seeing them was overflowed with blood. It was dark red, flooding over his chin, getting onto his clothes. On top of that, the competitor they chose (which was the said hardest in the game) pierced his lungs and left him to die. The rest of Game Bang was expecting him to get up, a little shaken but otherwise unharmed. It was just a game, right?

Right?

The screen went black, the circular mats did not glow with Jovenshire's safe and painless return. Anthony went over to the console and tore it out from the wall turning it over and over in his hands.

"Joven's gone," Anthony did not end that with a 'just kidding' remark.

"It can't be!" Lasercorn spluttered, "It's just a game for god's sake!" He went over to the mat pressing on it with his foot as hard as possible.

"I guess we made a mistake with the company," Ian said, his face was blank, devoid of emotion, "Joven's gone,"

"Joven can't be gone!" Mari said, just as flabbergasted and horrified as Lasercorn, she whipped her head to the tech filming, "Cut that out- in fact cut it all out," Her voice was sharp, she paced furiously around the room, and she cursed. "He did say that what was going on was hurting him badly, he was screaming,"

"We thought he was faking!" Ian defended, arms folded. Mari shot him the coldest look; she shook her head at the man.

"Why would he be screaming?" She said angrily, "He doesn't simply scream when he's fighting like that," she walked over to an expensive looking box with wires and some shiny tech stuff around it and kicked it mightily. No one dared to counteract that. She glared at Ian and Anthony, suspicious of the way they were faring Jovenshire's disappearance. She looked back at the mat half expecting Joven to materialize and say, "Hey guys!" but nothing happened, "He's not just gone," She said, voice tight, "He's dead. If what was going on in that video game was real, the swords would have cut a lot of places in his lungs. Joven would have drowned in his own blood,"

"Pfft," Ian scoffed, "I know that," He rolled his eyes. Mari's eyes flashed her hand grabbed a hunk of Ian's hair and pulled him to ground, hard.

"Listen to me Hecox, Joshua Ovenshire is dead- and you know why? Because of us!" She let go of Ian's hair, face glistening from tears, "We could've easily killed him! Putting him in that dumb game killed him!"

"We wouldn't actually kill him right?" Lasercorn asked, her blazing eyes directed its attention on him.

"Don't. Be. Stupid." Her voice was deadly calm, "Of course not, we play video games and we take risks with the internet and our humiliation but it's never life or death- this was the biggest risk! And you know what happened? Now Joven's dead!"

"We didn't know that the game or the console would kill him!" Anthony argued, "We just thought it was a sucky console some wannabe x-box company wanted us to promote," Mari only seemed to be half listening for she went into the drawers of the shelf and pulled out the two page contract Ian signed.

"Did you read it?" She demanded, shaking it violently in his face. She took a look at it, reading for two minutes and she rolled her eyes looking angrier than ever, "Look at this moron! There's a disclaimer! The console _may cause death while within it! Use at your own risk!" _ She shoved the papers into his arms, huffing, "We definitely can't blame the company, because they covered themselves up!" She left the game room, slamming the door behind her.

"What do we do now?" Sohinki asked, voice hoarse with horror and grief. His eyes flicked from Lasercorn to Anthony and to Ian, searching for answers. Anthony looked much older and paler, he rubbed a hand over his face.

"I don't know," He sighed.

-Line-

End.


End file.
